Wrench



Patented Aug. 5, 1924.

UTNED? STATES P AT EN T -FFICE.

WILLIAM A. NORTON, OF'MARSHALLTOWN, l'OVV'A, ASSIGNOR OF THREE-FOURTHSTO RAYMOND P. NORTON, 0F ALGONA, IOW.

VfRENCI-I.

Application Afiled December Y 10 all 'whom t may concern Be it knownthat I, VVILLrAM A. NORTON, a citizen ofthe United States, and aresident of Marshalltown, in the county of Marshall and-State of Iowa,have invented a certain new and useful Vrench, of which the following isa specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a wrench which mayrbe'usedsimilar to the straight wrench-.having fixed jaws, or that may be usedvin the same manner as a ratchet wrench, at fthe will ofthe operator,without any adjustments.

A fur-ther 'object is to provide 'in a wrench having anadjustable jaw,improved means whereby. the adjustable jaws may be made to accurately.and snugly lit all sizes of nuts or bolt heads within the adjustablerange of the wrench.

A further object is to provide in a wrench having adjustable jaws,imeans `whereby the said jaws'may be capable of being clamped to the saidnuts,v or bolt heads, in such a manner that the bolt head vmay begrasped by saidjaws andthe boltplaced in a hole or any other desiredposition, and when placed the bolt may be firmly held against eitherrotary or loi'igitudinal movement.

These-and other objects will be apparent to those skilled inthe art.

My invention consists in the construction, arrangement and combinationof the various parts of the device, whereby the objects contemplated areattained, as hereinafter more fully set forth, pointed out in my claimsand illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which: 4

l4`igureA 1'y is asideelevation of my improved wrench showing the mannerin which it isl applied to a nut when used as a ratchet wrench.' Y

Figure'2 showsan edge elevation of the same. i

view taken onth'e line 3`3 of Figure 2.-

Myimproved wrench comprises a handle 10 having a head member 11 formedintegral therewith. The said head member 11 is provided `with a nutengaging. jaw member 12, and also a rectangular opening 13.

Between theopening 13 and the jaw 12, llzhave provided adove tailed`groove 14, said groove being at `an angle substantially ninety degreeswith the face of the jaw 12.

Slidably mounted in the groove 14, I have Figure 3 shows aVlongitudinal, sectional 6, 1921. Serial N0. 520,337.

provided a slide member 15 having one of its edges provided with aflange 16 which is designed to carry a jaw member 17, the flange 16being designed to work in a groove 18 in the head 11 in such a mannerthat the jaw member 17 will be held against lateral movement, the faceof the jaw member 17 lgeing parallel with the face of the jaw mem- Theslide member 15 is mounted in the groove 14 in such a manner that theface of the jaw member 17 may be moved toward or from the face of themember 12. The said slide member 15 has its inner edges provided with aseries of teethY 19 designed to coact with the teeth of a worml 20, thesaid worm 20 being. rotatively mounted on a pin 21, oneend of which isslidably mounted in an opening 22, while the opposite end 23 is enlargedand slidably mounted in an opening 24 in such a manner that the worm 2Omay be moved a considerable distance in the opening 13 in a lineparallel with the movement of the member 15.

The outer edges of the threads of the member 2O are knurled and of adiameter slightly greater than the width of the member 11 so that thesaid screw 20 may be rotated between ther operators thumb and finger,and the member 15 adjusted relative to the pin 21. `The member 23 is ofa larger diameter than the member 21 to provide a bearing 25 againstwhich one end or' the .worm 2O may rotate.

Mounted in the inner end of the head 11, l have provided a pin 26 onwhich is pivotally mounted a lever or handle 27. This vhandle is formedU-shaped in cross section and has side flanges 28 designed to overlapthe sides or' the handle 10, the members 28 being designed to receivethe pin 26.

The head 11V is also provided with a curved portion-29 having a radiusin the cent-er of the pin 26, said curved portion being designed to beengaged by a curved portion 30 of the handle 27.

The inner ends of the side flanges 28 are connected together by means ofa plate 31, the said plate being provided with cam portion 32 designedto engage the outer end of the enlarged portion 23 of the pin 21, asclearly shown in Figures 1 and 3.

The handle 27 is so arranged that as its free end 33 is moved toward thefree end ot' the handle V10, the member 32 will move the pin 21 inwardlywhich in turn will move the slide 15 and the jaw member 17 inwardly insuch a manner that the jaw members 17 and 12 may be made to engage a nutor the head of a bolt, and when so engaged will be firmly gripped andheld.

The operator may then place the bolt within the hole if so desiredwithout having to grasp it by his hand. This I find is very convenientin a large number of instances where it is desired to place bolts incertain positions almost impossible otherwise due to the fact that theplace is too small to permit the operators hand to enter.

3y rotating the worm 20, the aw member 17 may be adjusted relative tothe jaw 12 so as to lit bolts of different sizes.

In making this adjustment, said aws may be separated a distance greaterthan the diameter of the bolt head or nut to which it is to be applied,after which the nut may be placed between the said heads and the worm2O` rotated to move the heads together. Then the said heads have engagedthe nut, a further rotation of the worm 2O will cause the free end ofthe handle 33 to be moved outwardly from the end of the handle 10. Whenthe heads have so engaged the nut, the movement of the worm 2O should becontinued about a quarter revolution. This Y will give about the rightamount of separation between the end of the handle 10 and the member 33so that as the handles 27 and 10 are `grasped by the operators hand andsqueezed together, the heads 12 and 17 will be brought firmly in contactwith the nut.

4The said handles may then be rotated in either direction as illustratedin Figures V1 and 3, and rotary movement imparted to the nut.

In this connection, it will be seen that the main part of the force isapplied to the handle 27 which has a tendency to cause the two jaws togrip the nut as rotated. It will also be noted that the pin 26 iscomparatively close to the pin 32 so that a considerable leverage isprovided so that but a slight gripping pressure is required by theoperators hand to firmly hold the heads 17 and 12 together. Y

By this means I have provided a wrench by which the nut of a bolt may berotated, either as a straight wrench or as a rachet wrench. wrench as arachet, the operator releases the gripping action as applied to thehandles 10 and 427 and may rotate the handle 1()V in either direction.

corners of the nut as illustrated in Figure 1. When the said rotationtakes place, the nut will have atendency to stand stationary due to thefrictional engagement with the bolt, and on account of the relativemovement between the heads 17 and 12 and the said nut,

' with the nut.

IVhen it is desired to use thej This movement will cause the jaws 17Vand12 to rotate about theV the head 17 will be moved from the head 12,thereby permitting the wrench to Vrotate without rotating the nut.

lVhen the faces of the jaws are parallel with the faces of the nut, theoperator then moves the handles 27 and 10 toward each other gripping thenut as before described.

It will also be seen that the wrench may be used as a straight wrench bymerely holding the handle 27 int-o engagement with the handle 10 duringall of the movements, 'the heads being so adjustedV that they will beeasily moved into and -This I find by actual practice is a greatimprovement over the ordinary ratchet wrench due to the fact that thereis no perceptible looseness between the jawV members and the handlemember which is common with the ordinaryratchet wrench.

Thus it will be seen that I have provided a simple, durable andinexpensive wrench which may be used as a straight wrench or out ofengagement Y as a ratchet wrench at the will of the voperator, and 4onewhen used as a straight wrenchV will have its jaw members firmlyvgripthe head of the bolt or nut, while it isV being operated.

This is a very important feature whether in wrenches having the ordinaryfixed head type or the adjustable head type. In Vt-he fixed head typeit. isV necessary that the distance between the faces of the jaws befixed and slight-ly greater than the width of the nut so that the jawsmay be easily applied.V

Y I find that even with standard size heads, a considerable variation 1nthe size of the heads exist m the different makes of nuts,

so that it is impossible to get a standard wrench that will accuratelyfit all standard heads. v

If the distance between the faces of the jaw members is slightly greaterthan that of the faces of the nuts, then the'wrench has a `tendency torotate about, the nut rather than to turn it, this being permitted bythe corners of the nut being turnedoverV and crushed in, due to theVpressureV of the jaws against thev saidA corners.V Y-After the wrenchhas been applied toHajnut-this way substantiallyV several times, itbecomes round instead ofhavmgflat facesy., The excess pressure caused bythe angu-V- larityV between the faces of the 'jaws ofthe wrench andthose ofthe nutV causelundue strain on the headV of the wrench,1and arem that way sprungV apart. i

l/Vithmy improved'wrench this Vdifficulty Y Y is always overcome due tothe fact that the faces of the 'jaws are always heldin abso-KV vlutecontact with the faces of the rnut.

By providing the curved :.2portifon29lso`V as to engage the curvedportionBQV ofthe handle 27, I have providedY meansfwhereby acomparatively., small Vfpiv'ot:,memberv 26 iso Y may be used, therebypermitting the said pivot member to be mounted comparatively close tothe edge of the opening 13, and the distance between the said pivot 26and the pin 21 to be comparatively short so that a large amount ofleverage may be obtained through the handle 27, the said leverage beingin proportion to the distance between the center of the pivot 26 and thepin 21, to the length of the handle 33.

I claim as my invention:

l. A wrench comprising a handle having a head and a fixed jaw, the saidhead being provided with an opening, one edge of said handle beingprovided with 'an outwardly extended curved portion, a movable jawslidably mounted in Said head, a lever pivoted to the said head having aportion designed to engage the said curved portion of said handle, saidcurved portion being concentric to the pivot of said lever, and meansactuated by said lever for moving said slidable jaw member toward orfrom the said stationary jaw member.

2. A wrench comprising a handle having a head and a fixed jaw member,said head being provided with an opening, a movable jaw member slidablymounted in said head and provided with teeth communicating with saidopening, a pin throughA said opening having each of its ends slidablymounted in the jaw member, one end of the said pin being provided withan enlarged portion extending through and Slightly beyond the headmember, the smaller portion of said pin being provided with a screwmember having teeth in engagement with the teeth of said movable jawmember, said screw member being of a length less than the length of saidopening and slidably and rotatively mounted on said pin, a lever pivotedto said head member having a cam portion designed to engage theoutwardly extending` portion of said pin so arranged that as the leveris operated in one direction relative to the handle of the wrench, thepin will be moved longitudinally and with it the movable jaw member bythe enlarged portion of the pin engaging one end of Said screw member.

WILLIAM A. NORTON.

